Seeking recovery after painful loss

When their Aunt Carol died on Christmas last year, sisters Katie and Elizabeth Donahue had already experienced an enormous amount of grief. Their father died in 2003 and their grandmother had died recently as well.

With tears rolling down her face, the girls’ mother, Heather Donahue, recently recounted how her husband, Tim -- who she said had never missed a day of work before -- became ill suddenly one morning. Though he had not been previously diagnosed with diabetes, emergency room doctors told Donahue her husband was in diabetic shock.

Within hours, Tim was dead.

It was only as the family began to comprehend that loss that Donahue’s mother died. She had a massive stroke and never regained consciousness, dying of a heart attack a month after entering the hospital. Donahue’s sister Carol died soon after.

“It’s been really hard,” Donahue said, looking at her daughters. But the family has tried to remain positive. “There’s always a brighter day out there. That’s all you can hope for. It can’t get any worse, can it?”

Katie, 13, and Elizabeth (who goes by her nickname, “Cheeks”), 12, have struggled to find ways to cope with their emotions. Donahue sees the kids’ attendance at summer camp as an important form of therapy.

Cheeks’ twin brother, Timothy (known as “Bruzie”), went to Camp Cherry Valley in July. And the girls will go to Camp Lakota -- the Girl Scouts’ summer camp in Los Padres National Forest -- in August.

As a child, Donahue went to Camp Lakota and she taught her daughters the camp song she learned as a Girl Scout.

“It’s where girls can grow and learn,” Donahue said. She’s worried about affording the cost of camp attendance on her Social Security income. Last year, the sisters raised money to pay for camp by selling lemonade to mountain bikers riding to and from Mt. Baldy. They’ve also collected recyclables to gather funds.

Now they are eager to return to Camp Lakota this summer. Cheeks looks forward to swimming and horseback riding. Katie wants to go hiking and make new friends.

“They need a week at camp,” Donahue said.

“One week goes by so fast,” Katie added. About 10,000 underprivileged children will go to camp this summer, thanks to $1.6 million raised last year.

The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1.1 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make donations by credit card, go to latimes.com/summercamp.

To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash.

Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.